The master of horror, Stephen King, chalked up another page turner under the pseudonym of "the late" Richard Bachman, "The Regulators.". In "The Regulators" the characters are already assembled as neighbors on Poplar Street. Their glorious summer day is shattered by the arrival of a crayon red van and its armed driver. Collie Entragian, a former cop drummed off the force on trumped-up charges, attempts to protect his neighbors and preserve the crime scene but the violence quickly escalates out of control. As the street begins a nightmarish metamorphosis into something out of the worst of children's television and old westerns, the strengths and weaknesses of the inhabitants begin to work on all of them - Johnny Marinville, the successful author of children's books, haunted by a dissipated past and a too-vivid vision; Cynthia, the new clerk at the convenience store, whose two-toned hair and irreverent wit obscure a core of decency; Tom Billingsley, the retired veterinarian; Steve Ames, a young man drifting through life, picking up skills.Then there's Audrey Wyler, the young widow with the autistic nephew, Seth. No one's seen her in a while and at first they scarcely notice her continuing absence amidst all the mayhem. But Audrey's particular hell has been a long time coming. There's a thing in Seth (he calls it "Tak") that can bend people to its will and the world to its malevolent vision and it's growing stronger.

While there is violence and blood, it is driven by the story and I have read alot worse. The biggest complaint I would make is that like 90% of King's books its a bit too long.

Characters are weak, which is disappointing for King (aside from the autistic villain, who surely rivals the manic cop in Desperation, and is definitely more creepy). Highlights also include a sympathetic and violent suicide scene, and generally the plot has a nice rhythm aside from a few slow sections.

I liked Desperation better as a whole, but there are much better scenes to be had in The Regulators. Not sure which is scarier, though I think the freakish innocent, here, is actually much worse than any of the threatened violence in Desperation. Both novels are spooky mainly because of their suggestions of sexual nastiness, and I think it's worse when that nastiness comes from a disabled child. The boy's encounter with Tak in the old mine stands out, too, as one of the great King sequences. Its got that mysterious Spielberg sweetness that somehow manages not to curdle. ( )

I don't even know how to explain this book....it was soooo strange! That being said, I couldn't put it down! I had to know what happened. It reminded me a little bit of From A Buick 8 because of the alternate world type of thing. It was definitely different but a really good read. ( )

I gave this three stars because I'm not really quite sure how I felt about this book. There were several points throughout that I simply had to put it down because it was just too much.

What I liked: I thought the characters were great; they felt real. The story was good. I kept wondering what on earth could possibly happen next.

What I didn't like: My only real complaint is the...intermissions (for lack of a better word.) While they made interesting reading, I would have rather read them all together at the end. Interspersed throughout the book as they were, it just seemed to break-up the story in an odd way. I was also slightly annoyed at the Stephen King references, especially at the very end. I'm not entirely sure why.

It was certainly an engaging story, but I don't think it would be one I pick up again. ( )

An evil creature called Tak uses the imagination of an autistic boy to shift a residential street in small-town Ohio into a world so bizarre and brutal that only a child could think it up. It's as two-dimensional and gaudy as a kid's comic book, but for this reviewer, The Regulators is a gripping adventure tale about what happens when a mind fixated on TV (especially old Westerns and a cartoon called MotoKops 2200) runs amok. As Michael Collins writes in Necrofile, "[Stephen] King offers his readers a glimpse of the true evil of popular culture ... which has no design or intent, only an empty need to sustain itself. King is, I think, about the canniest observer of what America is, and that he generally writes horror ought to give us pause from time to time."

At the start of a midsummer's day, life seems idyllic on Poplar Street. However, in the house of Seth, an eight-year old autistic child, something is amiss, something which will change the entire neighborhood's concept of reality. By the end of the day, this serene Ohio suburb will become a terrifying slaughterhouse.… (more)